The present invention pertains to tray assemblies for use with beverage brewing devices. More particularly, the present invention pertains to tray assemblies which receive and retain a spent brewing material from a beverage brewing apparatus and extract a liquid portion of the spent beverage brewing substance.
Beverage brewing devices are commonly used in high volume applications such as restaurants, catering organizations and other high volume food production institutions. A typical beverage brewing apparatus has a body which positions a funnel below a heated water source. The funnel contains a beverage brewing substance which is infused with heated water dispensed into the funnel to produce a brewed beverage. A brewed beverage is drained from the funnel into a serving decanter positioned underneath the funnel.
Such a beverage brewing device requires that the beverage brewing substance be measured and deposited into the funnel for each batch of beverage produced. Additionally, this activity inherently requires the removal of the spent brewing substance after it has been infused with hot water and a brewed beverage produced therefrom. The need to fill the funnel with a beverage brewing substance and remove the spent substance from the funnel is extremely labor intensive and prone to error due to mismeasurement or failure to remove the spent brewing substance from the funnel before producing another batch of brewed beverage.
Recently, beverage brewing devices have been produced which introduce a high degree of automation to the beverage brewing process. Such a device is shown in pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,925 to Bunn et al., issued Aug. 8, 1992. The device shown in Bunn et al. includes an automatic brewing substance dispenser for dispensing a predetermined amount of beverage brewing substance into a brewing chamber. The brewing process is automated including automatically controlled brewing, dispensing, and chamber cleaning. After the brewing process is complete, the spent brewing substance is exhausted from the brewing chamber through an exhaust tube into a waste collection container.
A problem arises, however, in handling the spent brewing substance. The volume of the brewing substance and waste water requires frequent periodic removal and dumping. In other words, it would be desirable to accumulate the spent brewing substance from numerous brewing cycles in order to reduce the amount of manual labor required in servicing the brewing device.
Another problem arises with the accumulation of spent brewing substance such that a large proportion of the waste product is waste water which is retained by the brewing substance itself during the brewing process. Additionally, it is common for brewing devices, such as the one shown in Bunn et al., to dispense waste water used to clean the brewing chamber into the common waste collection hopper. As such, a substantial quantity of water must be dealt with in disposing of the spent brewing substance. Attendant with the accumulation of the spent brewing substance and water is the problem of the weight of the container used to collect such waste products. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a small waste removal container which drains off the liquid portion of the waste materials and permits the accumulation of several brew cycles worth of spent brewing substance.
One possible solution to the waste material problem that may have been tried is to simply drain all of the combined spent brewing substance and waste water down a common drain. However, this solution may not be feasible in some areas which restrict the amount of material which can be flushed down a waste sewer along with waste liquids. Further, the plumbing requirements to flush substantial quantities of solid materials may not be available or may be cost prohibitive since they are substantially greater than those for merely draining water and other liquids.
Another problem that arises with the accumulation of spent brewing substances in brewing devices is that the spent brewing substance creates a great deal of steam and moisture which, if allowed to travel into the brewing device, may create many problems. For example, when spent brewing substances are disposed in a brewing basket, the steam rises off of the substance as the substance cools in the waste collection tray. Since the trays are positioned at the bottom of the brewing devices, the steam rising off of the spent brewing substance rises through the brewing device. While the brewing chamber is designed to brew substances, it is difficult to protect the internal components of the brewing device from the detrimental effects of the rising steam. In particular, when the brewing device includes a brewing substance dispenser, the steam may have an extremely detrimental effect on the brewing substance retained in the substance dispenser. For example, if ground coffee is retained in the substance dispenser, the steam may cause the ground coffee to cake and therefore not be properly dispensed into the brewing chamber.
As such, it is desirable to provide a tray assembly which can be inserted into the beverage brewing device to receive and retain spent brewing substances and waste water and drain the liquid portion therefrom. Further, it is desirable to provide a tray which prevents steam from the spent brewing substance from escaping from the tray.